˗ˏˋ⋆ H E A V E N L Y ⋆ˎˊ˗
↳ 𝒙𝒙𝒗𝒊𝒊. 𝒈𝒐𝒏𝒆 𝒕𝒐𝒐 𝒔𝒐𝒐𝒏
𝘵𝘦𝘦𝘯 𝘸𝘰𝘭𝘧, 𝘴𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘰𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘳𝘦𝘦
(𝔙𝔦𝔰𝔦𝔬𝔫𝔞𝔯𝔶)
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TEARS FELL DOWN THE HALE GIRL'S CHEEKS. SHE COVERED HER MOUTH, smothering her sobs so the person waiting in her bedroom wouldn't hear her.
It was real.
All of it.
Boyd was gone –– no longer with them.
Gulping it down, Gracie swallowed a cry and changed into her pajamas. Swiping a strand of hair, which was still a little damp, behind her ear before stepping out of the bathroom-room, the boy, who had been pacing, stopped all his movements to give her a small smile, but Gracie could see the worried look on Stiles' face. He could see her red eyes and knew she had been been crying.
"Cute pj's," Stiles said with a chuckle, hoping to cheer her up.
And it worked.
Gracie's lips quirking up into a small smile at the cupcake-patterned pants she was wearing, which were actually cute. She rolled her eyes at him as she tugged on her white, baggy t-shirt.
"Your shower okay?" He asked, and the Hale girl gave a smile –– a forced one this time.
She nodded, heading over to her bed and sat on the edge, crossing her legs under herself as she hugged her pillow. Stiles joined her, setting his phone down on the nightstand and the weight shifted on the bed as he sat beside her.
"You really didn't have to stay, you know?" She said, breaking the few seconds of deafening silence.
"It's okay," Stiles hummed, scooting closer towards her and taking one of her hands that had been clutching her pillow. He grasped it tightly in his own. "I wanted to."
Moving from her side after she got under the covers, he softly pulled the covers over her. Standing by the doorway, Stiles turned to leave the room, but her voice, loud but soft, stopped him.
"Stiles..." Her head was still resting on the pillow as she looked at him. "Can you stay? Just...until I fall asleep."
"Yeah," he nodded, walking back over and sinking back down next to her. He pulled the covers over them and turned on his side again, coming face to face with Gracie. "Hey...this wasn't our fault. It definitely wasn't your fault either."
"It doesn't feel that way."
"It's not, it's not. It's just how it is. We can't save everyone...no matter how much we might want to."
She might've not known that now, but it was the truth. It wasn't their fault. It's just something that happened. It wasn't a success, but it was worth a try.
"...Peter brought Derek to a cellar in the woods," Cora was finishing up the story of when Peter and Derek had to hide from the Argent hunters years ago. "They were there for two days, waiting, hiding. That's what we're taught to do when the hunters find us –– hide and heal."
"Okay, so is two days standard then, or are we thinking Derek's on, like, some extended getaway?" Stiles asked Cora from his seat next to Gracie on the couch.
Despite his impatience about Derek and his leave of absence, having Stiles at the loft helped Gracie more than he could know.
Cora turned away from the rain-splattered window and narrowed her eyes at him. "Why do you care?"
"Why do I care?" Stiles repeated sarcastically. "Let's see...because over the last few weeks, my best friend tried to kill himself, Scott's boss nearly got ritually sacrificed, Boyd was killed by the alphas...I—do you want me to keep going? 'Cause I can, all right? For, like, an hour––"
"You think Derek can do anything about that?" Cora asked grumpily.
"Well, since he's the one everyone seems to be after, it's more like he should do something about it, yeah."
"I don't know," Cora mused, walking over to the table full of books. "There's something different about him now. He wasn't like this when I knew him."
"What was he like?" Stiles asked. The sound of footsteps coming down the stairs caught their attention as they descended from the second floor.
It was Peter.
"A lot like Scott, actually. A lot like most teenagers—unbearably romantic, profoundly narcissistic, tolerable really onto to other teenagers."
"So what happened?" Stiles looked at Peter expectantly. "What changed him?"
"Well, the same thing that changes a lot of young men," Peter answered. "A girl."
"You're telling me some girl broke his little heart?" Stiles scoffed in disbelief. "That's why Derek is the way he is?"
"She wasn't just any girl. Do you even know why some wolves have blue eyes?"
Stiles shrugged, shaking his head. "I just always thought it was, like, a genetic thing."
"If you want to know what changed Derek, you need to know what changed the color of his eyes," Peter declared. He looked his younger niece. "You know the story, don't you?"
"No," Gracie shook her head.
Apparently when Derek was a sophomore, he met Paige Krasikeva –– the love of his life. While he was popular and charming, Paige was sassy and quick-witted.
"Okay, so if Derek was a sophomore back then, how old was he?" Stiles asked when they came to a natural pause in the story. He pointed at Peter and added, "How old were you? How old are you now?"
"Not as young as we could have been, but not as old as you might think," Peter answered.
"Okay, that was frustratingly vague," Stiles sighed, exasperated, and turned to where Gracie and Cora were sitting. "I know Gracie's sixteen. How old are you?"
"I'm seventeen," Cora said simply.
"See, that's an answer," Stiles pointed at Cora. "That's how we answer people. Okay, so, what happened with Derek and Paige?"
Continuing with the story, Peter explained that their family had known the other packs, specifically Ennis', Kali's pack, and even Deucalion's.
After one of Ennis' betas had been killed by the Argents, the three packs argued with each other, mostly on Kali's side when Talia Hale, the Hale pack's alpha and Gracie's mother, stepped in. The four alphas discussed what they were going to do about the Argents, and Ennis insisted on war. He declared it with a swirl –– the mark for vengeance.
"Man, you guys really take that revenge thing to, like, a whole new level, don't you?" Stiles commented, folding his fingers together while he watched Peter skeptically.
"It's not just revenge," Cora told him firmly. "Losing a member of your pack isn't like losing family. It's like you lose a limb."
"What does this have to do with Derek?" Gracie asked.
"Everything," Peter turned away from the window and walked back over to them. "It's never just a single moment. It's a confluence of events. Personally, I looked at Ennis' circumstances and I saw a profound loss. Derek saw something different. He saw opportunity."
"Opportunity?" Stiles wondered. "To do what?"
"To always be with her," Peter told him. "The thing was, he had this constant fear. He was obsessing over it. Thinking about it all night, all day, always on his mind. I kept telling him not to do it. Every day the more he thought about it, the more convinced he became."
"Okay, so what happened with Paige?"
"I went to Ennis on Derek's behalf and told him about a girl interested in the bite."
"Ennis?" Cora asked with pursed lips, disappointed with Peter's choice of alpha. "Why would you choose him?"
"Why not?" Peter countered. "Ennis needed a new member for his pack. Paige was young and strong. Doing a favor for Derek meant that Ennis would be in good with Talia. Back then, everybody wanted to be in good with her."
"He doesn't remember it was Ennis, does he?" Stiles spoke up.
"If he does remember, he kept it to himself."
"So, then what happened?" Stiles looked between Peter and Gracie for an answer. "Did he turn her?"
"Almost," Peter was the one to speak. "They were at the school at night and Ennis came for her. Derek heard her struggling and came at Ennis. A fifteen-year-old boy against a giant. There was no reason for him to fight. She'd already been bitten."
"So, did she turn?"
"She should have. Most of the time, the bite takes...Most of the time."
Stiles perked up. "When you offered it to me, you said, 'If it doesn't kill you.'"
"If," Peter emphasized. "Derek took her to the cellar where Derek and I hid from the hunters when Ennis' beta was killed. I went to them and he asked me what was happening to her. He knew the answer, though. It didn't matter that she was young and strong. Some people just aren't made for this. In the end, though, she was in too much pain. She begged Derek to help her."
"You mean...?"
"He ended her suffering," Gracie spelled out, and Peter nodded.
"And what about Derek?" Cora asked.
"Taking an innocent life...it takes something from you as well. A bit of your soul, darkening it, dimming the once brilliant, golden yellow to a cold, steel blue," Peter explained. He flashed his werewolf eyes as an example. "...Like mine."
Her heart hurt for her brother. He had to mercy kill the love of his life. Derek was one of the strongest people she had ever and will ever know. He was basically one of the people she admired the most because of his strength.
"What are you thinking so hard about?" Stiles asked her, pulling her from her thoughts. She was now sitting in her room, perched on the edge of her bed.
"Derek and Paige," Gracie murmured, looking over at him.
"I was thinking about them, too," he admitted. "I don't believe Peter. I mean, you know how we're reading Heart of Darkness in Ms. Blake's class?" Gracie nodded with a hum. "It's in first person, it's Marlow's perspective. The thing is that he's an unreliable narrator. You know the details of it have changed, you know, just because of his perspective."
"I know what you mean," Gracie informed him.
Now that she thought about it, a few of the details didn't make sense. Derek and Peter were never that close. Sure, they were related and had been apart of the same pack, but from what she remembered, they were never as close as Peter made it out to be.
"I just..." The Hale girl paused with a heavy sigh. "It's never gonna be the same. All the people that's gotten killed. Even if we find a way to stop everything...it doesn't really change anything." She shook her head solemnly. "It just feels, like every time we win...we still lose."
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𝐀𝐔𝐓𝐇𝐎𝐑'𝐒 𝐍𝐎𝐓𝐄:
That's the end of chapter twenty-seven. Again, another sad episode. I hope you enjoyed the chapter. If you so, vote, comment, and share.